Significant efforts are being made to increase thermal efficiency of radio telecommunications equipment and reduce the amount of heat generated within the enclosures housing such equipment. However, dissipating heat generated by radio power amplifiers within those enclosure remains a problem for the wireless telecommunications industry for at least two reasons. First, service providers are demanding more and more compact equipment enclosures while at the same time expecting greater functionality and capacity from each enclosure. Thus while various innovations improve the thermal efficiency of individual power amplifiers, the number of power amplifiers being housed in ever shrinking enclosures is increasing. Second, in order to provide more compact and less expensive equipment, the use of digital processing circuitry is on the rise. Such digital processing circuitry is sensitive to heat accumulation and will fail if operating temperatures within the equipment enclosure rise above their rated operating temperatures.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for thermal management for telecommunications enclosures.